Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the Minister of Natural Resources.
I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the environment today, as it is an issue that is extremely important to my constituents in Simcoe--Grey and of course to all Canadians and the international community.
Need for action on climate change has strengthened with each passing year. It is too bad that the former Liberal government turned its back on the subject and on Canadians. After 13 years of inaction, $40 million talkfests, champagne parties and promises, we are 10 years behind because the Liberals chose to do nothing.
When we look at the science that underpins the climate change issue, we see that there are several things we can agree on. Greenhouse gases are increasing in Canada's atmosphere. In fact, under the previous Liberal government, they rose a staggering 35% over a very short period of time. We also know that the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will continue to increase unless we do something to reduce our emissions.
We must ask the question of why this is: could we have been in a different position? Here is what the former environment commissioner had to say about the inept Liberal government's record on the environment in her 2006 audit report:
Since 1997, the government has announced over $6 billion in funding for initiatives on climate change. However, it does not yet have an effective government-wide system to track expenditures, performance, and results on its climate change programs. As a result, the government does not have the necessary tools for effective management, nor can it provide Parliamentarians with an accurate government-wide picture on spending and results they have requested.
She did not stop there. She went further, stating that:
On the whole, the government's response to climate change is not a good story. At a government-wide level, our audits revealed inadequate leadership, planning, and performance. To date, the approach has lacked foresight and direction and has created confusion and uncertainty for those trying to deal with it. Many of the weaknesses identified in our audits are of the government's own making. It has not been effective in leading and deciding on many of the key areas under its control. Change is needed.
The former commissioner was right when she said change was needed. Canadians were fed up with the Liberal scandals and broken promises, so what did Canadians do? They kicked the Liberals out of office and ushered in a new Conservative government to clean up the mess the Liberals left behind.
Not only did we clean up years of corruption, scandal, mismanagement and waste, we are now cleaning up the undeniable environmental disaster the Liberals left behind for Canadians. Today, we have record smog days in Toronto, and Canada ranks near the bottom of industrialized countries when it comes to air quality. We have to ask ourselves: what were the Liberals doing for 13 years? Why did they not get it done?
Canada's new Conservative government has taken action on the environment. As has already been mentioned, in the last two weeks alone, we have invested $230 million in the research, development and demonstration of clean energy technologies. Also, we announced more than $1.5 billion in funding for the ecoenergy renewable initiative to boost Canada's renewable energy supplies, and we unveiled our plan to invest approximately $300 million over four years to promote smarter energy use and reduce the amount of harmful emissions that affect the health of Canadians.
Last fall, we introduced Canada's first clean air act. By introducing the clean air act, we have put forward a number of tools that will help Canada address its air quality by reducing greenhouse gas and smog emissions simultaneously. This is the first time that Canada has regulated reductions in both air pollution and greenhouse gases. Internationally, we are the first country to regulate all sectors in an integrated and coherent manner.
We also introduced a clean air regulatory agenda that will regulate both indoor and outdoor air pollutants as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
We are providing stronger energy efficiency standards on consumer and commercial products.
We have already established new emission standards for on-road motorcycles.
We are setting the stage for mandatory fuel consumption standards on the vehicles Canadians buy.
But the Liberals do not want to see any progress on the environment. They are pulling every trick in the book to stall the special legislative committee looking at the clean air act. They want to drag out hearings for months, which is interesting in that it is coming from the former Liberal government that, when in power, said it had a plan to address the environment. But we never saw it. Consequently, what has Liberal inaction meant to Canadians?
In terms of temperature, the changes in Canada have generally been higher than the global average. This is particularly true in our northern regions. The “Arctic Climate Impact Assessment” was published not long ago and received wide media coverage and public attention, as it should. The report served to highlight the rapid changes occurring across the Arctic and concluded that the Arctic has been warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the world.
A whole suite of changes is evident across the Arctic, which has led many to consider the Arctic the canary in the coal mine, an early indicator of what may come to other regions of the world. In particular, the observed reductions in sea ice have been much commented on, since the implications of this trend, were it to continue, are very significant for Canada and for the globe.
For the Inuit, the reductions in sea ice put in jeopardy their traditional hunting and food sharing culture, as reduced sea ice causes the animals on which they depend to decline and become less accessible.
With reduced sea ice, shipping through key routes such as the Northwest Passage is likely to increase. This could bring new opportunities, but it is also an additional environmental concern.
We have also seen impacts of the changing climate in other parts of Canada. In B.C., infestations of the mountain pine beetle are wreaking havoc on the forest industry. In recent years, prairie drought has cost the agricultural economy billions of dollars. On the west coast, we have seen several extreme storm events in recent months. In eastern Canada, we have experienced an unusually warm early winter.
These events, while not individually traceable to climate change, are consistent with expectations of more extreme weather in the future. These impacts are a threat to our citizens and to our environment and have enormous economic impact.
In summary, Canada's new government is extremely concerned. That is why we are taking concrete actions to deal with climate change and air pollution to improve the health of Canadians.
